Saturday 1 April 2023

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Will they pay for the funeral?

I have a life cover policy with my bank. My grandmother died on 15th March and I have submitted all documents that they needed from me on the 16 March and to-date nothing is happening. I have to pay mortuary for a coffin.

The insurance is saying I can't claim but I joined in June 2021. When I joined the bank the employee said for parents I can add two and I said I don't have a father but my mother and grandmother and she included both as parents, I have been paying my premiums, I amended the policy after getting married to include my wife and still they said nothing, I have been comfortable knowing I have a policy, My current situation is my grandmother is lying in the mortuary and I don't have any thebe to bury her. I am hopeless.

Lastly when I called them they said it's either they refund the premiums that I have been contributing for my grandmother of which I didn't agree too. I am the breadwinner and everybody is looking upon me. I am really depressed. They say I must write a letter to them and I told them it's them who are supposed to write to me why they can't pay the claim.

Now they said that she is not my biological mother even though I have been paying premiums for her for years. I guess if the personnel who helped me join made a mistake they could have picked it long back. I have been comfortable knowing that I have a funeral cover. My question is why do they have to pick that now when it's due to claim. My believe is the have hired qualified and competent personnel who could have picked this, I am so depressed.


Firstly, on behalf of every reader of The Voice, please accept our condolences on the loss of your grandmother and the stress you are experiencing.

Just to make matters worse, I think you've been badly let down by your bank and the insurance company behind the scenes that offer this insurance policy. I've seen a copy of the insurance agreement and it's very clear that it only covers parents, not grandparents. But did they explain that to you clearly? Clearly not. When you made it clear to them that you wanted your grandmother covered, did they politely decline? Clearly not. When you paid for your grandmother to be covered, did they politely reject the payments? Clearly not.

I contacted both the bank and the insurance company and their reaction was the same. I don't think they care. All they're prepared to do is refund you the premiums you've paid for your grandmother which will be a very small amount. I think you've been badly let down.

They paid the wrong people!

I am having an issue with a claim from my medical aid provider. On the 25th of January I had a medical procedure that I had to pay upfront for. On the 30th of January I logged a claim for P8,194.83. On 13th February I received an SMS that stated that my claim had been paid out. On the 17th of February after having not received anything in my account I called their helpline to find that they had paid the clinic instead of me.

I have been following up on this since then. Every week I call and it is the same story as last time, we are working on it. I am hoping you can help me get my money back.


Section 14 (1) of the Consumer Protection Act says various things, all of them simple and easy to understand. It says that when "a supplier undertakes to perform any services for or on behalf of a consumer, the consumer has a right to … timely performance and completion of those services (and) timely notice of any unavoidable delay". In other words, don't take too long to do things.

It also says that consumers are entitled to "performance of the services in a manner and quality that consumers are reasonably entitled to expect". In other words, don't be incompetent. Together these rules mean that a supplier like your medical aid shouldn't make too many mistakes and if they do make a mistake, they need to fix it quickly.

I'll contact them and see if they understand this.

Update: The medical got in touch and explained that there had been a confusion about the two payments. As often happens with private hospitals the payments to doctors are separate from payments to the hospitals they operate from. They contacted the reader and explained this as well.

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